handbrake is a great tool, thank you for being there!! when i use the itouch presettings, the encode of transformers come out w black bands top/bottom. i searched but couldnt find crop settings so that plays full screen. Thank you for help.

I don't think it's 100 percent clear how to choose the right settings in handbrake for the zoom function in the iPod to work. (For instance, if you choose the setting 640 x 480, the zoom function doesn't work.)

So, the answer is:

If you choose the width 640 (or perhaps less if you only want the film to work in the touch) and erase the value in the field for "height" and choose automatic crop you should get the correct (zoomable) result.

amalgam wrote:I don't think it's 100 percent clear how to choose the right settings in handbrake for the zoom function in the iPod to work.

No, it's quite clear. Use the preset, and zoom will work. All the time.

It's quite clear if you know it, sure, but I don't really know in what way it's "clear" that you should erase the numbers popping up in the "height" field if you should enter a different value than the value in the width preset. Now that I know that Handbrake will do the math, it's perfectly clear, but before that... Well well.

cowboyshootist wrote:First, why use 480 for Width in the preset for Touch/iPhone? You can have a width of 640, theoretically.

Yes, and theoretically you can have a bitrate of 10,000kbps and it'll play on an iPhone too, but you only have 16 gigs of storage at most (on a Touch) so why not make the most of it? Apple themselves say to use 480*360 as a bounding box. The iPhone/Touch screen is only 480*320, and anything larger is pointless. I'm not sure what's preventing you from using the 640-width iPod High-Rez preset anyway, if you're keen on higher resolution video. Or customizing the preset.

Second why use zoom? Wouldn't that distort the picture somewhat?

No, it will chop off part of the picture.

Why not use Handbrake to produce a video file that is a) the correct apsect ratio for the input content and b) maximizes the use of the available screen realestate?

Um...that's what I already have the preset doing!

It maintains the correct aspect for the input -- 1.78:1, 2.35:1, 1.33:1, or 1.85:1 in most cases -- for the available screen real estate, which is an irregular 1.5:1 aspect in a 480*320 array.

cowboyshootist wrote:First, why use 480 for Width in the preset for Touch/iPhone? You can have a width of 640, theoretically.

Yes, and theoretically you can have a bitrate of 10,000kbps and it'll play on an iPhone too, but you only have 16 gigs of storage at most (on a Touch) so why not make the most of it? Apple themselves say to use 480*360 as a bounding box. The iPhone/Touch screen is only 480*320, and anything larger is pointless. I'm not sure what's preventing you from using the 640-width iPod High-Rez preset anyway, if you're keen on higher resolution video. Or customizing the preset.

Second why use zoom? Wouldn't that distort the picture somewhat?

No, it will chop off part of the picture.

Why not use Handbrake to produce a video file that is a) the correct apsect ratio for the input content and b) maximizes the use of the available screen realestate?

Um...that's what I already have the preset doing!

It maintains the correct aspect for the input -- 1.78:1, 2.35:1, 1.33:1, or 1.85:1 in most cases -- for the available screen real estate, which is an irregular 1.5:1 aspect in a 480*320 array.

OK I see where I was confusing the resolution of the actual screen with the supported video resolution. Now that makes sense.

I feel the removing any portion of the content is "distortion" of the original content, therefore, chopping off parts of the video would be a worst case distortion (IMHO).

Good to know that it will maintain the correct aspect ratio. Some other conversion products I have used do not seem to do this. That may be due to some of the intermediate steps in the process, I don't know. I know that when using content recorded on Tivo and Videora for conversion it does not use enough of the available screen. This may be bad parameter settings on my part, I don't know. This is why I am reading the forums and trying to understand how to simplify the conversion process while getting maximum quality for the iPod Touch. I'll give Handbrake a try to night on a couple of shows I have recorded.